Can active yeast stand in for nutritional yeast?
The attached article details how active yeast and nutritional yeast are used. It states they are not interchangeable. Of course baking needs active yeast to rise the bread. But the article makes a blind claim that active yeast cannot be used in place of nutritional yeast.
Anyone know if that claim has merit and why? My local bio shop charges nearly TWICE the price for nutritional yeast as they do for active yeast. Apparently it’s not cheap to pay someone to murder the yeast. The shop staff said active yeast can substitute for nutritional yeast so long as I don’t have a fragile gut.
So I bought the active yeast -- not for making bread but for French toast batter. Will it work?
6 replies
If you are heating up the batter with the yeast it turns inactive. In both cases you are consuming an inactive form of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It would only make a difference if you consumed the yeast while still active, so without cooking it before - but I think that's not your plan?
I usually cook with nutritional yeast. Exceptionally, I’ve garnished popcorn with it, but I was not thrilled about the taste. Anyway, I appreciate the feedback. Maybe it makes sense to buy both nooch and active yeast, and use the nooch just for uncooked food.
Active yeast does not taste like nutritional yeast so you're recipe will taste different when it's complete. Active yeast has a sort of malty flavor to it while nutritional yeast has a flavor reminiscent of cheese, which is probably why it's being called for in your recipe. I often see it used in vegan dairy replacements (this is where I mostly use it, with soaked blended cashews and some apple cider vinegar for a pseudo sour cream I call nooch'n'nut), but it can also just add some extra flavor complexity to any number of dishes.
I'm not sure if there's any harm in eating active yeast, but I know it certainly won't taste very good...
My pantry smells like a brewery now that I bought the stuff. I suppose this limits what I can do with it. The french toast w/active yeast wasn't bad but it's not as good as what I recall tasting with nooch.
You should be keeping active yeast in the fridge, unless it's stored in foil lined packets. Your yeast may be dead. You can test this by putting some of it in 110°F water (just over body temp, the water should feel slightly warm to the touch, if you don't have a thermometer) along with 2 teaspoons of sugar. If it foams after ten minutes, it's alive!! Otherwise, RIP yeast.
I've never seen recipes call for active yeast as a flavor component, nor French toast call for nooch, but the latter isn't unimaginable. The former is very bizarre to me. Unless it's used in the rising of the actual bread used for French toast. Tangentially, that should be challah, in my opinion. Stale challah makes for the best French toast.
Well, I just opened it today. I bought it on the shelf. The brewery smell was well emitted despite still being sealed from the shop. It says “keep cool” on the pkging without giving a temp. Guess I’ll keep it in the fridge.